Yesterday a number of very good news sites ran the story that Mattel would be changing the rules of Scrabble. We’re talking about people like the BBC and The Telegraph.
If this is true it means people’s names and place names are valid scores in Scrabble.
Shakira, for example, would be worth 64 points (as it uses all seven letters).
My gosh! It’s so close to April Fools’. Do you think there could be a connection?
Many people did.
The truth, however, is somewhere in between. Mattel are bringing out a new game called Scrabble Trickster.
With Scrabble Trickster players will have other tricks too; such as stealing letters or spelling backwards.
You may also notice that the two sources above are both British. That’s because Mattel owns the rights to Scrabble in Europe.
They don’t own the rights in the US. Hasbro, parents of Wizards of the Coast, do. You might remember how this contributed to the drama around the unofficial Facebook version of the game.
Hasbro have said they’ve no plans to introduce Scrabble Trickster to the US.
There will be no rule change but nor is this an April Fools’. It’s a new version of Scrabble.
